Census Bureau Releases Mobile Data App

In late-July 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau released "My Congressional District," its first interactive tool geared exclusively toward finding basic demographic and economic statistics for every congressional district in the U.S.

The web app uses the latest annual statistics from the American Community Survey (ACS), providing the most detailed portrait of America's towns and neighborhoods. Users can sort through statistics in five key categories on selection of a specific district in the application. Summary level statistics covering education, finance, jobs and housing, as well as basic demographic information, can quickly be displayed, downloaded and shared with others.

A major feature of the "My Congressional District" app is the ability to embed a selected 113th congressional district on a user's own webpage, which will display the latest statistics from ACS, allowing visitors to quickly view statistics for any of the 435 congressional districts.

Ever since Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790, collected information detailed characteristics about our nation's people. Questions about jobs and the economy were added 20 years later under James Madison, who said such information would allow Congress to "adapt the public measures to the particular circumstances of the community," and over the decades allow America "an opportunity of marking the progress of the society."

Data in the new mobile app provides a wide range of important statistics about people and housing for every community across the nation. Results are used by everyone from town planners to retailers and homebuilders. The survey is the only source of local estimates for most of the 40 topics it covers, such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs for even the smallest communities.

The Census Bureau also released a key update to the "America's Economy" mobile app by adding three key new indicators: consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI) and nonfarm payroll. This app allows users to quickly view key economic data the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis in one place.